Brendan Purcell graduated with the M.S. degree in 2019. His work was in collaboration with Prof. Ashlynn Stillwell at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and partially funded by a Water-Energy Nexus seed grant at the University of Colorado Boulder. His research developed a framework for calculating the downstream effects of proposed uses of reclaimed water, studying multiple case studies and regulatory contexts. A journal article on this work is currently under revision. According to Brendan,
I'm very happy I decided to attend CU Boulder to study water resources engineering. Coming from the east coast, going to school in Colorado has given me a new appreciation of the importance of water in addition to the technical skills and critical thinking required to succeed in any job going forward.
He is currently working at Golder Associates, in their Lakewood, CO office, working on power plant and civil engineering projects.